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Silks and Stones
Silks and Stones by Quinn Lawrence is a fantasy mystery about Hokuren and Cinna, a pair of investigators whose trip to Fondence begins as a family obligation and turns into a larger case involving smuggling, old secrets, goblins, a dangerous wizard, and the buried truth about Hokuren’s parents. The book sits comfortably in the fantasy genre, but it borrows a lot of its engine from detective fiction: clues, rumors, coded diaries, false assumptions, and the slow pleasure of watching pieces click into place.
What I liked most was how grounded the story feels even when the magical stakes rise. Lawrence opens with a cat rescue, which is funny, messy, and oddly perfect. It tells you right away that this is not a fantasy world built only for grand speeches and glowing spells. It has scratched-up tunics, unpaid bills, awkward clients, and people trying to make rent. That choice gives the book a warm, authentic texture. I also appreciated the rhythm between Hokuren and Cinna. Their partnership has the easy snap of a long friendship, but underneath the banter there is real care. Sometimes it is as simple as bandaging wounds that will heal anyway.
The author’s biggest strength is balancing humor with emotional weight. Hokuren’s grief over her father and her questions about her mother could have made the story heavy, but the book keeps moving through curiosity, action, and small comic turns. Cinna brings a blunt, physical energy that cuts through the sadness without cheapening it. I did occasionally feel the plot had a lot on its hands at once: family history, smuggling, wizard politics, goblins, coded writing, and the central relationship. Still, most of those threads feed the same larger idea, which is that knowing the truth about people can make them more complicated, not less lovable.
I’d recommend Silks and Stones to readers who enjoy cozy-leaning fantasy mysteries with heart, humor, and a strong central duo. It will especially work for people who like investigations in magical worlds, found-family dynamics, and stories where the emotional case matters as much as the criminal one. For a reader who wants a thoughtful adventure with wit, warmth, and a little mud on its boots, this book is easy to recommend.
Favorite Fantasy Series
Cinnamon Soul follows a private investigator and her elven assistant who take a case to find a missing princess and wind up tangled up with royal secrets, ominous knights, and magic. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The most basic premise of the story was inspired by Dungeons & Dragons campaigns I was in between 2018-2021, with the two main characters Cinna and Hokuren originating there. (Anyone who plays D&D might know which class Cinna was). However, beyond the tight bond between Hokuren and Cinna and the name of the ultimate villain, very little of the campaigns ended up in the book. What works in a D&D campaign doesn’t always work in a novel! The story came together over the course of multiple drafts as I had a beginning and ending in place first, then built the middle up to make the two meet.
I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from and how did it change as you were writing?
I like big melting-pot fantasy cities, so that’s where I started. Velles is this big city where everyone’s just trying to get by and they don’t care so much who you are or where you came from as much as what you’re doing now. One of the biggest inspirations for Velles is Ankh-Morpork of Terry Prachett’s Discworld novels, one of my all-time favorite fantasy series. Velles certainly grew as I was writing, with one or two of the neighborhoods only being brought into existence after a few drafts. It’s the sort of place that’s big and disparate enough that I can keep growing it out (to an extent) in future novels. It’s a lot of fun to create the various neighborhoods in the city. Another thing that changed as I was writing was the feeling of decline that lingers in the background of the novel. Magic is weakening while at the same time, monsters are practically eradicated, negating the need for adventurers. There’s this whole past world that no longer exists, and at the time this novel is set, everyone is still trying to figure out how to proceed going forward.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The most important are the themes of found family and friendship exemplified in the relationship between Cinna and Hokuren. They are very different people and react to it differently, but they are both lonely. Particularly with Cinna, I also wanted to explore the idea of it not mattering where you come from. One of her goals early in the book is to find her birth parents, who abandoned her when she was an infant. I won’t spoil it, but she does learn the truth of her parentage and has to grapple with how much it matters considering the life she now has with Hokuren, and does her heritage matter at all. Finally, one of my favorite themes, which is that the people with power are so frequently among the least deserving of it, and how those without power must navigate that sort of world.
When will book two be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?
My plan is to make book two available in 2026. It’s in the middle of the first draft, and I don’t have a title yet. What I will say is that while Cinnamon Soul ends up with a heavier focus on Cinna and her past, the second book will flip to more of a focus on Hokuren. She will have to return to Fondence, the town she grew up in, and deal with the ramifications of her decision to leave as an eighteen-year-old to forge her own life in Velles, while leaving her widowed father behind. Expect more heartfelt scenes of introspection as well as plenty more playful banter between Cinna and Hokuren as Cinna goes to a small town for the first time in her life (hint: she’s not initially impressed).
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Her private investigation office’s rent is past due. Her sterling success rate applies mostly to finding lost cats. And she should really pay her overworked elven assistant, Cinna, with more than just slices of blueberry pie. So when the Prince asks Hokuren to find his daughter, she hopes this will be the break she needs.
But there is more to this case than a mere missing princess. Hokuren soon finds herself chasing after the monstrous villain behind an elf kidnapping scheme and tangling with magic said to no longer be possible (never trust the wizards). She’s determined to uncover every secret, no matter how heart-wrenching, until she solves the case—because she always solves the case. Yet as she and Cinna dig deeper into the conspiracy, Hokuren starts to suspect that the hunter has become the hunted. And the biggest secret of them all might be hiding within her unassuming assistant . . .
A lighthearted and fast-paced fantasy adventure full of action, mystery and sly humor, Cinnamon Soul is also the heart-warming exploration of an unbreakable bond of friendship forged between two women as they struggle against the forces of the elite and powerful.
